monday song #1: ghost story

the descending/ascending piano line came first. it suggested to me a kind of hopeful melancholy. the piano part and melody came very quickly, the result of fiddling with different accompaniment styles, in this case the piano playing the guitar, something i want to do more of.

the first lyric hook was “why does it alway have to be…” but i had no idea what that meant, only that someone was saying it to the person singing the song. then i got “a broken heart a valentine” and from there it was just wrestling with meaning, tying the two parts together, and uncovering the rest of the story.

the squeal of kids was an accident: cormac and maude running through the house with friends when i was recording a vocal. at first i thought a decent take was ruined, upon hearing it in context, it had the sense of faraway delight, a happy sound, but lonely in its distance. a memory perhaps, or a dream.

hat tip to elliott smith who haunts this one, and to the white album beatles, as is often the case these days.

i’m working to get the podcast link working correctly. pretty sure the itunes link works, but the podcast link is adding some extra info that is breaking it. after a bit of research should have it sorted. thanks for listening!

I like the contrast of the light, pensive, somewhat sweet feel of the music with the rather biting lonely lyrics. I get the sense of someone who is deeply disappointed, but trying to sort of convince themselves that it’s not really that bad. Is it?